Oregon 86, Oregon State 71: UO women outrun Beavers in 'track meet'

CORVALLIS -- In his typical calm demeanor, Oregon coach Paul Westhead summed up his first Civil War experience in two words:

"Wasn't easy."

It also wasn't surprising for Westhead, who has quickly raised the level of expectations in the Ducks' women's basketball program.

In the same venue it lost by 29 points last season, Oregon beat Oregon State 86-71 on Saturday before 3,095 at Gill Coliseum.

The Ducks matched their most points scored in a Civil War and improved to 3-0 in the Pacific-10 Conference for the first time since 2000-01. Oregon (12-3) is off to its best overall start since 1998-99, having recorded three more wins than it did all of last season.

"They're beginning to play like they can win," said Westhead, who has been a head coach in the NBA and WNBA. "There's a different feel. They feel like they're going to be successful."

Much of that confidence has to do with Oregon's new up-tempo style of play, which has helped the Ducks average the most points per game in the nation.

"We really believe in our system and we go out there and we just do our thing pretty much every single game," Lilley said. "They tried to slow us down as much as they could. We were trying to create a lot of chaos. I don't think the fast pace is really what they wanted to do, but they kind of fell into it a little bit."

Oregon State coach LaVonda Wagner said the first five minutes of the second half was the difference in the game. After taking a 45-39 halftime lead, the Ducks opened the second half on a 13-6 run to take control.

The Beavers, who entered with the Pac-10's top defense, had trouble establishing their preferred slower pace and were forced to run with Oregon.

"We've got to be able to stick with our game plan and play our type of basketball," Wagner said. "That's a team that we did not want to get into a track meet with and at times we did that."

Even when Oregon State (9-4, 1-2) had success, it had little time to celebrate. On several occasions, a big Beavers basket was quickly followed by an Oregon basket.

Oregon State junior Talisa Rhea scored a season-high 30 points, making 7 of 8 three-pointers while being the only player on both teams to play all 40 minutes. But seemingly every time Rhea pumped up the crowd with a deep three, the Ducks answered.

“If someone burns you like that, the only thing you can do at that specific moment is take it right back at them and score,” Westhead said. “In an instant, that kind of takes the fun out of what just happened.”

There was plenty of fun to be had for the Ducks, who shot a season-high 53.8 percent from the field and used a relentless full-court press to force 20 Oregon State turnovers.